Introduction

Anyone seriously interested in making wines or beers from raw ingredients should consider investing in one of the many excellent books available. You will find a selection of our recommended ones in the product list and online shop. Here we give a few tips and tricks and a few sample recipes to show what is possible.

Wines

While country wines have been made from nearly any edible flora you could mention, the best tend to be made from either fruits or berries, and occasionally flowers. Combinations of these work well also. e.g. Apple and Elderflower.

In addition to the equipment necessary for kit wines, you willl need an open topped bin or bucket, a hydrometer and a kitchen seive. The hydrometer is a little gadget which is floated in the wine before the yeast is added. It tells you how much sugar is dissolved in the liquid and therefore how much alcohol will be produced. It is important that this measurement is taken, and a figure of around 1080 is ideal for most wines. This will give an eventual strength of app.12%. If you have berries or fruit in the liquid you are testing, you will have to strain a little of the juice into a trial jar before testing. All wines should be de-gassed before bottling (see "beginners" section). Make sure that all equipment is clean and sterile. The following recipes have been tried and tested by us at the homebrew centre. Although amounts of sugar are given in these recipes, it is always better to underestimate the amount, and then make up to the right amount using the hydrometer. In all the recipes, add 1 campden tablet per gallon at each racking.

 

Red Wines

Brian's Fresh Elderberry (5 galls)

Freeze the berries, then take them out and the berries should separate easily from the stalks. Best to wear a clean kitchen glove to do this. This freezing also helps to break down the cell structure of the fruit and release the juices. Add enough water to cover, and simmer for 15-20 mins.Put a little cold water in your bucket and add the berries. Add the grape conc. and sugar, dissolved in hot water. Add some water to the malt and bring to the boil. Add to bucket. Make up to 4 galls with cold water.

Now take the temperature and add water at the right temperature to bring the volume to 5 galls at 20-25°. Now add your pectolase, nutrient, oak, and yeast. Allow to ferment for 4 days and then remove the berries with a sieve. Transfer the wine to a fermenter, top up to just above the 5 gall. mark, and add airlock. Allow to ferment out fully, rack, fine and bottle. You may wish to sweeten this wine slightly before bottling (2-3 level tsps sugar per bottle) in which case, potassium sorbate should also be added to guard against bottle fermentation. Back to Top

 

Brian's Dried Elderberry (5 galls)

Add berries to bucket, pour over 2 pints of boiling water. Add honey and stir to dissolve. Add grape conc. Add some cold water to malt, bring to the boil and add. Disslove the sugar and add. Make up to slightly above 5 galls at 20-25° Add other ingredients and stir. The rose petals can be put into a muslin bag weighted with a small sterilised stone or a few marbles. Proceed as above. The berries can be left in and the wine fermented in the bucket untill fermentation is almost complete.

NB. This will produce a very full-bodied, rich wine. For a much lighter red wine, use half the quantity of berries and add 6 tsps of tartaric acid. Back to Top

 

Blackberry and Apple (1 gall.)

Juice the apples if possible, otherwise chop and then liquidise or crush them. Wash the blackberries, and put into a 2-gall. bucket. Add a small amount of water to the sugar and heat to dissolve. Pour over fruit, stir well and then add the apple juice or pulp. Add the conc. and make up to slightly more than 1 gall at 20-25°. Ferment on the pulp for 5 days, strain into demijohn and top up to correct level with water. Proceed as above. Back to Top

 

Damson (1 gall.)

This produces a medium-sweet wine.

Use really ripe fruit, and remove the stones before fermenting on the pulp in a bucket. Strain off and finish under airlock. When bottling, add the extra sugar, some wine stabiliser and 1 campden tablet. Back to Top

 

Plum (1 gall.)

This produces a sweet wine. By using more sugar than the yeast is able to consume, we ensure that some of it does not ferment and remains in the wine.

Grind the barley in a mincer, stone and cut up the fruit, putting both into a bin. Pour over some boiling water ,and leave for 4 days, adding the pectolase when cool. Stir daily. Strain on to the sugar, add the yeast nutrient and conc. Stir till all is dissolved. Add yeast. Cover loosely and ferment for about a week, then pour into fermenting jar, filling to bottom of neck, and fit an airlock. Make sure you do not bottle untill all fermentation has definitely ceased. Back to Top

 

Rosé Wines

Rosehip (1 gall.)

Gather the hips after the first frost. Wash well, and mash with a piece of wood or a mallet (unnecessary with dried hips). Put the sugar , grape conc. and hips into a polythene bucket, pour over some boiling water, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Make up to slightly over 1 gall. at 20-25° and add yeast. Leave 1 week, strain into fermenting jar and finish off as usual. Back to Top

 

Strawberry (1 gall.)

Mash the berries and mix with the sugar.and 2 litres of water. Leave for 24-36 hours, then strain the liquor into a fermenting jar. Add a further litre of water to the pulp, mix well, and immediately strain again, then add the acid, grape conc., pectolase, and yeast nutrient. Make up to 1 gallon at 20-25° and add the yeast. Continue as usual. Back to Top

 

White Wines

Apple and Elderflower (1) (1 gall.)

The wine can be started in a bucket, loosely covered, and then transferred to a fermenting jar after a week or so, straining off the flowers. Apple juice can ferment very quickly, so best to check and if necessary transfer it sooner. Back to Top

 

Apple and Elderflower (2) (1 gall.)

Make the liquid ingredients up in a bucket to 1 gall. at 20-25°. Strip the flowers from the stalks with fingers or a fork, place in a muslin bag along with a washed and sterilised stone or a few marbles to weigh it down. Continue as above. Back to Top

 

Grape and Peach (1 gall.)

Make ingredients up to just over 1 gall in a bucket at 20-25°. The peaches can be mashed first to extract the flavour. Strain off after 4-5 days into fermenting jar and continue as usual. Back to Top

 

Pear (1 gall.)

Use really ripe pears. No need to peel or core them, just chop them up, saving any juice, and put them into a large saucepan,cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for a maximum of 20 mins. Strain the liquor onto the sugar in a fermenting bucket, make up to just over 1 gall at 20-25°. Add other ingredients, stir and ferment out as usual, transferring to fermenting jar in latter stage of fermentation. Back to Top

Beer

Most home made beer in Ireland today is made from kits. The quality of these kits is remarkably good - in fact many of our customers say that the reason they brew their own is because they cannot get the same quality in commercial beers! The less expensive kits will contain less malt, but will produce perfectly good beers

Comercial breweries produce beer by mashing - crushed malted grains (predominantly barley) are soaked in warm water to a porridge - like consistency. This mash must be held within a very narrow temperature range untill all the fermentable sugar is extracted from the grain. The "wort" is then strained off and boiled with hops for app. 1 hour, cooled and fermented. It is quite feasible to replicate this process in your kitchen, but you will require some special equipment. You will also need to read a book on the subject!

The other 2 options available to homebrewers are A) Use malt extract, in which case you need only boil it up with hops and any other flavourings, cool and ferment. B) "Customise" a beer kit by adding dried malt extract and/or flavouring grains - e.g. crystal malt. Here are some ideas. Back to Top

 

Pale Ale (5 galls)

Boil the malt extract, malt and hops and the Irish moss together for 45 mins. in 1 gallon of water (if using the dried malt extract, add it to cold water first). Put some cold water into a fermenting bin and strain the liquor from the boil into this. Rinse the spent grains and hops with 2 kettlesfull of hot water and add this. dissolve the sugar in some hot water and add. Top up to the final quantity with cold water. When cooled to 20-25° add the yeast. Ferment 4-5 days and rack off into a fermenter. Finish off under airlock. Add beer finings and when clear rack off again into bottles or a keg. If using bottles prime with half a teaspoon of sugar per pint and leave in a warm place for 3-4 days before moving to a cooler place to mature for 10 days before sampling. Procedure is the same for a keg but use 60-70 gms of sugar. Back to Top

 

Amber Ale (5 galls)

Method as above. Back to Top

 

Tavern Ale (5 galls)

Method as above. Use light soft brown sugar for priming. Back to Top

 

Ale of the Glen (5 galls)

Method as above. Back to Top

 

Porter of the Glen (5 galls)

Method as above. Back to Top

 

Lager of the Glen (5 galls)

Simmer the hops with the malt in a small amount of water for 10 mins. and strain the liquid into a fermenting bin. Add the lager kit and golden syrup and some hot water and stir to dissolve. Continue as above. Back to Top